1997 Dodge Ram 3500 Cummins Project

If you've noticed that Project 12-Valve has been missing from the magazine for the last few months, you're not alone. We've received quite a few letters wondering what happened to it, and we're stopping by this month to give you an answer. As far as the magazine goes, Project 12-Valve is considered a completed vehicle, and we now have our sights set on making Project Rust Bucket into a truly awesome daily driver. We didn't need two cheap truck buildups in the magazine, and we went way over budget on Project 12-Valve anyhow. Our '89 Dodge is also much lighter, which translates into better dragstrip times and improved fuel economy.

So we're marching on with our first-gen Dodge as our "budget diesel." Right now, we only have about $2,000 in it, including the transmission, and are already at 300 horsepower, so it is a good start. What will become of the dualie? Well, it may lead the life of a tow vehicle, a daily driver, or its engine and transmission could find their way into a race car. Either way, we bid adieu to Project 12-Valve, and hope those readers who followed along had a good time and will continue to read about our future projects.

Best Modification: Intercooler
We Had To Think Long And Hard About This One, And Despite the hefty price tag, the BD intercooler was one of the most impressive modifications that we made on our truck. After people got tired of sending letters complaining about our power rating, they next focused on calling our 200- to 250-degree EGT drop into question. Under full throttle acceleration, the EGT difference was about 100 degrees, but when the truck was put under an additional 8,000-pound load, the drop increased to about 200-250 degrees. Even though we saw a negligible power gain from the intercooler, most of our readers use their diesels to tow at least some of the time, so we have to give the BD intercooler our "Best Modification" award.

Down On Power?
We've Received More Than One Letter Asking About the seemingly low 321 horsepower rating on Project 12-Valve. So what gives? Do people have unrealistic expectations, or are we missing something? To get a clearer answer, we called "The" Jeff Garmon of Garmon's Diesel Performance in McDonough, Georgia, who is a renowned 12-valve tinkerer, to get his opinion. Our own theory was that the #5 fuel plate in the stock position was holding us back, and Garmon agreed. He said 400-425 horsepower was not an uncommon power number for trucks like ours, even with the stock HX35 turbocharger. His guess was that if we took out our fuel plate completely, or installed a #0 plate, we would see at least 400 at the wheels. Our exhaust gas temps would have also been higher, but for almost 100 more horsepower, we have a feeling we could have lived with that.